Boo

Boo! comes as a nice little extra feature on the Frankenstein-DVD. It's definitely worth a watch as it may be one of the very first spoofs ever made. A voice-over guides footage from "Frankenstein", "Nosferatu" and some of "The Cat Creeps". Separate scary parts from both movies are perfectly edited into each other and the narrator's figurative language mostly results in subtle chuckling. Check it out when you're browsing through the DVD-extra's! It won't take much of your precious time (Boo! only lasts 10 minutes) and it's most certainly make you laugh! Much funnier than later comedies and horror spoofs. This little short is thought up by Albert DeMond who wrote an endless amount of screenplays. Merely comedy and drama.

This nice and unusual little vintage Universal comedy short goes out of its way to throw in footage of the golden b/w horror films; "Nosferatu", "Frankenstein" and "The Cat Creeps". The clips ranging from these three films are strung along by a mockery-laced narration. There's no harm here, even if it can be lame and downright pointless, but its hard not get a cackle from some of the noteworthy scenes and rapturously smarting remarks. It only goes for about 10 minutes, so it pretty much breezes by with well-etch editing and the likable humour gladly doesn't overstay its welcome. Corny maybe, but that's just due to the times. This is definitely an interesting and enjoyable supplement, which is provided on Universal's Frankenstein DVD.

As time passes, it is easy to forget that films of the past were often accompanied by co-features, newsreels, cartoons and film shorts that added to the value of an evening out. Even if the main feature was a desultory effort, entertainment could be found within the accompanying program.

Dating from 1932, Boo was a short film produced by Universal that used footage from their own Frankenstein adaption, as well as The Cat Creeps and the 1922 German version of Dracula entitled Nosferatu. With minimal new footage but clever editing, a modest yet enjoyable short was produced. Given that the film incorporates only around three minutes of new footage, production was likely limited to a single day.

Clearly a product of its time (with brisk narration bemoaning the depression and Congress' failure to deal with it), this film was likely a tolerable indulgence for film goers of the time but has become an intriguing relic of its time for the modern viewer.

On a side note, Nosferatu was ordered destroyed by Bram Stoker's widow shortly after its unauthorised production. Several prints survived and it is intriguing that a relatively clear one was available for the producers of Boo as early as 1932.

With so much of film history prior to 1950 now lost to us, the survival of Boo and its public distribution with the Frankenstein DVD provide us with an item of historical and social interest. It provides an indication of how modest resources could be used to pad out a cinema program and perhaps more importantly shows the cultural impact of Frankenstein at that time. The monster was an easily recognisable figure already and would not have been included in the short had the public not been able to instantly identify him.

Seeing a film like Boo is like opening a door to the past. Even after the door has closed the memories remain and new insight is gained by the viewer.

Corny short film put out by Universal that gently mocks Nosferatu and their own Frankenstein. There's footage from both of those films included. Why Nosferatu instead of Universal's recently-released Dracula, I don't know. They also include some bits from The Cat Creeps (1930), which is now a lost film. That's fun for classic film buffs. There's kind of a Pete Smith vibe about the short but it's not as funny as one of his. I'm sure it was a lot more amusing in 1932 than it is today. To be clear, I'm not saying it's bad. It's a pleasant enough way to spend ten minutes. If you're a fan of classic horror films, you will probably enjoy it more than most. But there's nothing special about it beyond the clips from The Cat Creeps.

I've just come across Boo as an extra on the DVD of Frankenstein (1931) and, due to the fact I was watching it at well past midnight, I found it as strange as it was funny. It starts off with a bearded man with a strange expression on his face emerging from a jack-in-the-box and holding up the film's title, which is a weirdly disconcerting effect, particularly as I have no idea who this man was. The narration is rather outdated, not so much because it was recorded in 1932, but because of what is said (the reference to woman automobile drivers is ever so slightly sexist), but what I don't get is, while Universal included footage from its movies 'Frankenstein' and 'The Cat Creeps', the Dracula segments actually come from F.W Murnau's 'Nosferatu'. This seems strange, because I would have thought the studio would want to publicise its own, then-recent, Dracula movie (the one with Bela Lugosi). To conclude, Boo is an oddity that you probably won't find yourself watching unless you get the Frankenstein DVD, which you ought to own anyway